My Birthday and Denver Trip

I had so much fun on my trip, I felt I should share. 

For my actual birthday, I went to lunch with the girls, (3 good friends), and the weather in Vegas was actually cool enough to sit outside at the restaurant and that in and of itself is a really big treat!!  Good food and girl talk with a cool outdoor breeze.  It was amazing.  (My kids celebrated by birthday the night before with dinner at Cici's Pizza, and a shopping trip to Target so they could pick out birthday presents for me.  they were awesome also.)

Then I went to Scott's place in the evening where we ordered in dinner and watched a movie. We had been wanting to see "King's Speech" but the PG-13 version.  Well....they don't make a DVD PG-13 version, only in the movie theaters could you get that version.  So, Scott did some extensive research as to the R rating and was able to edit it, (skip certain scenes) to make it a great movie.  And it was a really good movie.

The next day (Sunday) we went to the airport to try to get a flight out on stand by.  We knew it would be hard, so that's why we started the process on Sunday.  However it was really fun.  It felt like an adventure waiting around the airport to see if we could get a seat. On the second flight we tried, we got on, even though the flight was running 2 + hours late, and the room of people waiting to get on was packed.  It was like winning the lottery.  We got to Denver and didn't have to pay to fly.  (It's good to be dating a guy that works for an airline)

Scott took me to his favorite places in Denver to eat and Monday before the game we went to "Elways" restaurant in downtown Denver.  It is such a beautiful, upscale restaurant.  They specialize in steak and seafood, including sushi.  The food was fabulous, but even better they brought me a dessert with a candle for my birthday.  They said it was John Elways favorite, that is why they picked it for me.  It was called a "Classic ding-dong".  But it was anything but out of a box.  It looked like a giant ding-dong (my favorite as a kid) but it was real cake with whipped cream inside and coated in chocolate ganache.  Yummmmm.  (It's good to be dating a guy who knows all the best places to eat, in the major cities where Southwest flies.)

We needed to get to the game, but Scott allowed me some time to walk around downtown Denver to see if I could find the building I used to work in when I lived there 20 years ago.  I saw a few things that looked familiar, but I don't think I found the exact building. It was nice just to walk around a little bit.

We took a cab to the game, and just getting into the area was crazy crowded.  The fans in Denver really get into their game. The stadium was packed!!! 95% of the people were wearing some forms of team shirt.... some had jerseys of their favorite players, others just had team shirts. However 75% of them had on the bright orange color of the home teams jerseys that night.  When you looked out over the stadium, you saw a sea of orange. 

The guy sitting to the right of us, was really excited and was talking to all of us and getting everyone to make sure to cheer.  Especially this guy...

He had his head painted to look like the old old Broncos helmet.   I wished I'd gotten a better picture.  The guy by us started yelling "hey... orange head, get up and cheer.  Yeah you, you painted your head orange, help us out here, you should be cheering."  This went on for about 4 minutes, before the guy turned around and acknowledged it and agreed to start cheering for his team. 

Yes, the blonde behind him was wearing black.  She and her friends were Raiders fans. (A little dangerous in that crowd)  When she got up to cheer when the Raiders made a touchdown, she got yelled at by a guy next to her group that told her she better sit down!!!

We had great seats behind the goal line.   Scott said he could have gotten seats on the 50 yard line, but behind the goal line you can actually follow the game better and see exactly where they are.  (It's good to be dating a guy who played football in a semi pro league.)  He was also able to teach me things about the game that no one else ever pointed out before.

By the way, that bald head in the lower right corner of the picture is the guy that HAD an orange helmet head earlier.  It rained hard in the second quarter, and he had to wipe off the paint.  The rain kept up and we were totally soaked.  But it was still fun and I counted it as part of the whole experience.

It was a late game (It started at 8:30) and we got back very late (1:45 am).  (Catching a cab after a game like that was like.... well the line to get a cab was another "mile high" experience.)   It was such a great adventure. I count myself pretty lucky to have had such a great birthday experience.

If you didn't catch the game, the Raiders won by 3 points, but the Broncos played a better game, just don't tell Kathie I said that.

Hello, I'm still here

Okay, so it has been a really, really long time since I have posted.  Darian is now in his second year of Pole Vault.  His current height is 7 feet. Just qualifying in most cases, but it is improvement.  Most importantly he still enjoys it.

Excuses:  I stopped writing when I realized that I was going to get divorced.  Divorce... something I never thought would be in my vocabulary.  It can be a taboo word.  I have avoided people who don't already know so that I don't have to see the look of pity in their eyes, or explain myself to them. 

Now, one year later I can say it.  I got divorced.  Although I don't recommend it as a principle, it is one of the best decisions that I have made in a long time.  There really are times when it is not only the best option, but the only acceptable option.  I am now a strong confident woman, and I know that I can do whatever I need to do in my life.   I have a nice smaller home, but big enough for all of our needs.  I have 2 great jobs, lots of friends and support.  I have great supportive kids and family members that will always be there for me when I need them, and I even get to go out on a date once in a while. (Okay, maybe it's more frequently)

Because I work 2 jobs, and have the kids on weekdays when homework and extracurricular activities eat up all of the spare time, I often feel like I'm missing out on personal time with my kids.  I don't get the weekend "down" time.  I miss out on the spontaneous picnic for Saturday lunch, or board games on Sunday because we have time to relax. 

With the help of a buddy-coach, I determined that I need "fun" with my kids in my life.  I am going to play with them more often. 

It started on Monday, when I was getting the kids started with homework, and suddenly realized that I needed to return a video before I got charged anymore for it.  I figured I could do that while they worked on homework.  Zach asked if he could come with me.  (He was missing me after spending the past 10 days with his Dad for Spring Break.)  When we got back we decided to go through the garage to make sure to put the empty water bottles into recycling.  I spotted the football by the recycling bins and tossed it to Zach.  Soon I put my purse down and went out into the alley that our garage backs up into, and just passed the football back and forth for about 1/2 hour.  At some point he through the ball and I caught it and he said "you are better than me", and I was able to point out to him that he knows how to throw the football better than me and that is why I was able to catch it.  He smiled and realized that that was probably true.  It just takes practice. We were both better at it by the time we were done playing.  We are going to do it again soon, but include more brothers.